Michael Goodwin
Michael Goodwin began his career in education as a teacher of English at the Groton School. Following his time at Groton, he settled in Vermont, where he worked with at-risk students who had been expelled from the public school system. While in Vermont, Michael founded Friends of Dicisco, a nonprofit organization dedicated to strengthening communities by highlighting relationships between people and the natural world.
Michael has served as the Academic Director of the Great Books Summer Program, an enrichment opportunity for high school students held at Amherst College and Stanford University. In the summer of 2010, he opened The Concord River School, offering a tuition-free, interdisciplinary academic experience to high school students between Leominster and Boston. This program, Rivers and Revolutions, has since been incorporated into Concord-Carlisle High School as a “school-within-a-school.” Michael has consulted with numerous schools across the state in an effort to expand the offering to students in other districts.
In 2013, Michael was highlighted as one of the most innovative teachers in the country in the book American Teacher: Heroes in the Classroom. The following year, he co-founded the Concord River Institute. Through this organization, he has led a wide array of professional development workshops for teachers and administrators and is frequently invited to lecture at campuses across the country.
Goodwin’s short film, “Solving Fragmentation in Education”, produced by Cray Novick.
In 2020, Michael was awarded the Robert Gross Award for Advancing Concord's History for his work exposing students to the lesser-known parts of Concord's history. In the spring of 2021, Michael left the public school system to pursue 1836 and other professional endeavors.
Outside of education, Michael has recorded several albums and is currently finishing a musical project with his long-time collaborator, Peter Maclean. He also serves on the board of directors at The Umbrella Arts Center.
Michael holds a B.A. in Fine Arts from Amherst College and a M.Ed. in School Leadership from Harvard University. He lives in Concord with his children, Winnie and Sammi, and his fiancée, Madelyn Henry.
